Heavy snow and wildfires hit Turkiye

A rare blanket of heavy snow fell on parts of northeastern Turkiye on Friday as the rest of the country sweltered in searing summer heat with firefighters battling wildfires, local media reported.

Temperatures plunged in several mountainous areas inland from Rize, a town on Turkiye's northwestern Black Sea coast, that lies about 120km from the border with Georgia.

A new fire broke out Friday near the Greek capital, Athens, as the country was put on high alert for wildfires due to increased temperatures and strong winds.

Thousands of tourists and locals were meanwhile forced to flee hotels and guesthouses in a resort on the popular island of Crete.

The latest fire broke out in the municipality of Koropi, some 30km east of Athens, fanned by strong gusts.

Syrian rescuers were evacuating residential areas in the coastal Latakia province because of major forest fires, authorities said Friday.

Fires have been spreading across large parts of Syria, particularly the coast, for several days, with firefighters struggling to control them due to strong winds and an intense drought.

Unusually low water levels on the Danube river in Hungary are affecting shipping, agriculture, and local ecosystems along Europe's second-longest river, which is a major transport route across the continent.

Temperatures peaked at 35C (95F) in Budapest this week as much of Europe baked in an early summer heatwave linked to the death of at least eight people.

The snow and ice accumulated last winter by Switzerland's glaciers has already melted away, a monitoring service said, with Friday marking the alarming second-earliest arrival on record of the tipping point known as glacier loss day.

All further melting between now and October will see the size of glaciers in the Swiss Alps shrink, according to Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS).

This century, the tipping point, on average, has been reached in mid-August -- itself already bad news for the nation's 1,400 glaciers, which are shrinking at a staggering rate.

Sweltering heat enveloped China's eastern seaboard Friday, as a high-pressure system settled over the country's most populous region, baking key agricultural and manufacturing hubs along the Yangtze River and raising fears of droughts and economic losses.

Large swathes of China's economic heartland are set to roast in temperatures of 37-39C (99-102F) over the coming week. Forecasters are warning that parts of Anhui and Zhejiang provinces, as well as the more central provinces of Hubei and Henan, could top 40C.